Not sure what to make of this: Poll shows that Democrats prefer a candidate who compromises

Or both?

And if Democratic politicians seem more willing to compromise, is that because they are reflecting their voters' attitudes or because they view a degree of compromise as inherent in democratic government or because they lack conviction or because they are hypocritical "sell-outs" (as opposed to the "obvious sell-outs" that most republican politicians are)?

I think we can safely say those poll results go out the window whenever compromise moves from the hypothetical (sure, it's the "reasonable" thing to do) to taking the my-way-or-the-highway deals that the GOP routinely puts on the table. Even President Obama, who displayed symptoms of fatal attraction to compromise in his first term, has moved on.

Democrats to a higher standard than republicans, and that is truly messed up

while republican voters hold their candidates to the "lower" (anti-compromise) standard.

Independents prefer that candidates of both parties be willing to compromise. At least this poll does not show that independents have different standards for the two parties.

In a Democracy it's rare you get everything you want on any issue. If you insist on no compromise in politics, Democratic forms of government are not for you.

Thanks, Steve...

...the "my way or the highway" form of government is called a dictatorship. I find it to be one of the most ironic political oddities that those who profess to be the most patriotic (between sips of tea) have the most stark misunderstanding of the way our government works. I'd find it funny if I weren't too tired to laugh from it keeping me up at night.

Compromise and fairness are what make us Democrats. Demanding they get their way 100% of the time is what makes them assho...er, Republicans.

The poll suggests embracing compromise is an efficacious political strategy or at least to pay lip service to it if your intention is to win an election.

to win the next election perhaps embracing compromise is not the most efficacious strategy.

... (sorry - couldn't resist). That's if you want to win at the expense of the system - Rove's short term goals model.

I have no trouble wrapping my head around the concept of sticking to your core principles while still being able to compromise to move the country - and important issues - forward. Whether we (progressives) like it or not, a pretty good sized portion of the population in this country is conservative. That means they are represented in our form of government, have some say, and have to be dealt with on the adoption of policy. Government is supposed to move slowly in our system (providing increased stability) - that sucks when our guys have won office and we want change NOW!, but its a good thing when the other party is elected and we want them to slow down the regressive march to the stone age.

Those left of center have a better grasp on reality.

This political maneuver is the worst, we see what has happened to the GOP, radicals has attempted to take the party over. They can not win on their own but they think if they put R behind their names then they have a chance to win elections. For them R is for radical.

Included in this. Whites and Blacks included only those who are not Hispanic.

I wonder why the largest growing block of voters in the US did not even register with the Pew Research Center? And yes - I went into the link but didn't find them measured against blacks and whites.

current President has twisted himself into pretzels (to the detriment of many of us) thousands of times in an effort to compromise with Republicans, only to be rejected, then we are DONE being anything close to a great country.